1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to training firearms and, in particular, to automatic and semiautomatic rifles that have been modified so as to be unable to fire ammunition, but which retain enough of the features of an original equipment rifle as to be useful in training military and police recruits in rifle cleaning, safety, and field stripping procedures.
2. Background Art
Military and police personnel, especially raw recruits, require introductory training in the use of firearms. Such training typically will include instruction on safe handling and storage, as well as procedures for cleaning, and field stripping, of such weapons. In the interest of safety, training firearms for this purpose desirably are incapable of firing a lethal round, or of firing any round at all. It is still more desirable to provide for training and familiarization, a standard firearm with minimal modification to make it non-firing, whereby all the procedures ordinarily followed with the standard form of the firearm can be performed on the modified firearm.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,937,563 to Schuetz disclosed a firearms safety system for adapting conventional handheld firearms to fire non-deadly simulated training ammunition. The system provides a series of gas relief ports and passages to prevent the successful firing of live ammunition in the firearm.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,969,283 to Baehr disclosed a firearm having live round inhibiting means mounted in the barrel of the firearm, which permitted a blank cartridge to be loaded into a firearm and fired while preventing the loading and firing of a live round.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,625,916 to Dionne disclosed a conversion of firearms to fire reduced-energy ammunition. A training kit was provided for use with a firearm that normally has a standard bolt, which standard bolt had a bolt recess at a forward end thereof for receiving and embracing the head end of a standard cartridge. The training kit included, in addition to round of reduced-energy training ammunition, a training bolt with a circular recess of a diameter that would not receive and embrace the head end of the standard cartridge; this limited the placement of a standard cartridge beyond the reach of the firing pin.
To prevent inadvertent placement of a live round into a firearm equipped with a laser for use in laser tag training exercises (the Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System or “MILES”), U.S. Pat. No. 7,036,260 to Gee disclosed a safety system for safely venting through a succession of vent holes in the barrel the pressure needed to propel a bullet down and through the barrel. If a live round were inadvertently loaded, the bullet would be retained in the bore and the firearm would shut down.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,973,863 to Jones disclosed an adaptor for use with a flash suppressor on a machine gun barrel that developed sufficient back pressure in order to allow the gun to repeatedly fire blank rounds of ammunition.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,701,909 to Tiberius et al. disclosed a semi-automatic-firing compressed gas gun for firing paintballs. The gun was sized and designed to appear like and operate in a manner similar to a conventional gun.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,869,285 to Jones, II disclosed a training firearm that provided a realistic recoil effect. A laser replaced live rounds, and a blow back assembly was provided that was driven by a disposable cartridge of compressed gas that was self-contained in the gun handle. A valve integrated with the firing pin released a burst of gas when the firing pin was impacted by the hammer. The gas pushed back a slide and recocked the hammer for the next round.